Components of vehicles that are visible to a user during normal use of the vehicle are referred to as visible components. Visible components of this kind have high requirements in terms of the look and feel thereof because the optical impression that a user looking at the visible component has is often proportional to the supposed or perceived quality of the vehicle. The visible components may be for example interior component parts, such as dashboards, center consoles or control elements, or exterior component parts of a vehicle, such as mud guards, bonnets or vehicle tops. DE 10 2013 014 111 A1 for example discloses a visible component having a transparent and/or translucent cover layer which covers the component. DE 10 2013 002 364 A1 discloses fiber-reinforced visible components for a vehicle, having a reinforcement layer, a cover layer, and an absorption layer between the reinforcement layer and the cover layer.
When fiber-reinforced composites (FRCs) are used as visible components, the layer at the top, which is made of carbon fiber reinforced plastics material, can be opaque. This makes the surface have an optical impression of the individual fibers, and therefore visible components that are reinforced with carbon fibers can also be referred to as carbon visible components having a “carbon look.”
EP 2 666 617 A1 discloses a method for producing locally reinforced fiber composite laminates in which a plurality of preforms are stitched together using thermoplastic yarn and then cured all at once. Dallner, C.; Sandler, J.; Hillebrecht, M. Reul, W.: “Faserverbundkonzept für ein Cabrio-Dachmodul,” ATZProduktion, no. 3, September 2012, Springer Vieweg, Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH (http://www.plasticsportal.net/wa/plasticsEU˜de_DE/function/conversions:/publis h/common/upload/technical_journals/automobiles/Fibre_roof.pdf) discloses a convertible roof module consisting of fiber composite sandwich components, which has more potential in terms of light construction than those modules consisting of metal
However, there is a need for visible components that have a homogenous surface appearance and, at the same time, can have different mechanical properties in different regions.